Violent Streets (1974)

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After making his name in the samurai genre, master filmmaker Hideo Gosha (THREE OUTLAW SAMURAI, SAMURAI WOLF) turned his camera to the world of the yakuza, and the violent streets they control. Legendary gangster-turned-actor Noboru Ando plays Egawa, a retired yakuza underboss, now nightclub owner, who gets pulled back into the life when his old comrades demand control of his club. Meanwhile, a gang war quietly roiling behind the scenes erupts into open violence in response to a high-profile kidnapping, lending unimaginably high stakes to Egawa's reemergence onto the yakuza scene. The result is a kinetic and stylish explosion of deception, mayhem, and death that leaves no one safe - and a masterpiece of 1970's yakuza cinema.